The Damascus Gate

Known as Shechem Gate, Nablus Gate, Bab-al-Amud (Arab) meaning Gate of the Column. The Damascus Gate is the largest, busiest and the most magnificent of all Jerusalem’s gates. The modern gate was built in 1542 by the Suleiman the Magnificent. The original gate was presumably built in 2nd Temple times followed by Romans at the time of Hadrian, in the 2nd Cent AD. The Damascus gate is so named because from here the road from Jerusalem to Damascus begins. It is called the gate of the pillar because here stood the first milestone that indicated the distance to Damascus. It is the Nablus gate because the city of Nablus (Biblical Shechem) is in the same direction as Damscus. Damascus Gate stands at the approximate location of the ancient Fish Gate, just west of the Gihon Spring, where men gathered to sell fish, sometimes in violation of the Sabbath (II Chronicles 33:14, Nehemiah 3:3, 13:16). It also may be the same as the Middle Gate (Jeremiah 39:3).